Japan. Purple Iris by Ogata Kōrin.

PURPLE IRIS. BY KŌRIN.

(Irises (紙本金地著色燕子花図, shihonkinjichoshoku kakitsubata zu)

FROM PAINTINGS IN COLOURS ON A GOLD-PAPER GROUND, MOUNTED AS A PAIR OF SIX-LEAF SCREENS.

Size of original, each 4 feet 11½ inches by 11 feet 8½ inches – 150.9 cm. by 338.8 cm for each screen. Signed: Hokkyo Korin. Edo period 1701-02. Designated as a National Treasure.

OWNED BY THE TEMPLE, NISHI-HONGWAN-JI, KYOTO.

As we have often said, kōrin was especially excellent in painting foliage and flowers. Among his pictures of the latter, the Iris is the favourite subject. This pair of screens shows us one of the largest works of this kind, and it is of superior excellence among his many Iris pictures.

As is to be seen number of Iris plants, in full bloom, are depicted upon a background of gold, the only pigments used being gunjô and rokushô: but the exquisite taste displayed in combining the colours; the mysterious dexterity of the brush-work; and the brilliancy of the gold-leaf, produce an ensemble which fairly dazzles the eyes of the beholder.

Probably gunjo and rokusho are the most expensive pigments, and certainly they are the most difficult touse properly, because of their tendency to granulate on the palette and to crumble to powder after having been laid on the canvas; but these two peculiarly troublesome pigments are used here without a trace of hesitancy and so smoothly and beautifully are they washed on that we cannot find a rival to these pictures among all the works produced by artists of the old or the new schools, in the East or in the West.

The wonderful effectiveness of these pictures will serve to show us why kōrin is so highly esteemed as one of the greatest of our decorative artists.

Ogata Kōrin or Ichinojō, 尾形 光琳, born 1658 in Kyoto, died 2 June 1716 in the same city, household names: Kariganeya Tōjûro, Katsuroku, brush names: Kōrin, Hōshuku, Jakumel, Dōsû, Kansei, Iryō, Seiseidō, Chōkōken, was a Japanese painter, landscape illustrator, lacquerer and textile designer, older brother of the painter and ceramist Ogata Kenzan. The work of both of them belongs to the Rimpa school.

Source: Masterpieces selected from the Ukiyoyé school by Shiichi Tajima (1869-1924). Tokyo, Shimbi Shoin, 1906.